Given to me by a friend as she knew I wanted to read it. Lucky for me she has let me keep it! might RABCK this one as it seems very popular.

If you've found the book and you are reading this please make a journal entry and let me know where it has ended up, I love to find out where my books have gone! If you decided to join BookCrossing, please say house-elfdobby sent you. Many thanks and Happy BookCrossing!

Thank you so much house-elf dobby for the wonderful, wonderful surprises that I've found in my mail-box today!! One has been on the slow boat, travelling for a while and the other posted just last week. Isn't it amazing how they've both arrived together?!! I have been reading the reviews on this one and wanting to read it and I am so happy that you've sent it to me..... xx

This was a wonderful read. It took me a few chapters of reading before I started getting into it. It was totally unexpected ... quirky and interesting. I am still not sure what has hit me and I think it deserves to be read for a second time...just to make sure that parts have not been missed. This is such an unusual book and it revealed so many special things. I thoroughly enjoyed it. By coencidence, it was also chosen as our read for bookclub this month and I will let you know how the meeting goes and what everyone else thinks soon. Thank you so much for this treat, house-elfdobby!!

Back again to let you know that we had a lovely discussion on this book at our bookclub meeting. A quick overview of the discussion can be found here

I have popped the book into Round 31 of the Oz Virtual Book Box and it is travelling right now, on it's way to the other side of Australia. Hoping that it's new friend enjoys it as much as we did.

Waving to you house-elfdobby :) Thanks so much !!

Taken from the OzVBB. Thanks Carole888.

I enjoyed Renee's observations of the people she worked for & life in general, but some of the philosophising just irritated me & felt pretentious - not all of it, but it went on too long in parts. I felt the truth of this quote from Renee while I was reading, as well as acknowledging it in life: 'I have always been fascinated by the abnegation with which we human beings are capable of the rehashing of useless and absurd ideas.' (p. 243)

I was amused by Renee's ability to fade into the character of the 'perfect' concierge in the face of the snooty, rich inhabitants of the apartments, and her inability to do so with Kakuro Ozu - a little bit of pride showing there, & it was a relief to see it.

Paloma, poor little rich girl, was also amusing and irritating by turns. Her character sketches were fun, but her insistence on her own intelligence, profound thoughts & desire to kill herself brought her back to being a dull, commonplace adolescent. I am glad she managed to find the beauty in life.

So, an amusing satire, with an unnecessary ending. I found the return of Pierre Arthens, & his memory of the camellias, particularly poignant.

Sent to leahjett from the Women in Fiction VBB.

Yes yes yes! This looks exactly like something i'd enjoy <3 I can't wait to get through more books so I can read it! (:

I think the author Muriel Barbery swallowed a dictionary and threw up the contents to create this book. I give it a 4 - finished book , but wouldn't choose to read another by this author. The sentences go on and on, making it such a hard read. Similar to concrete. Or a rip tide. I saw other people saying that if you listen to the audio book its much easier to understand.

I preferred the narrator of Paloma and her Journey of the movements of the world & profound thoughts compared to Renee (the Hedgehog). They were quite insightful and easier to follow. I also liked how it was set out. You could read it in short snippets without being bogged down with this boring read.

They were so boring! I didn't care about either of them. The ending was pointless - more for shock value than anything else. I was wishing Paloma would actually kill herself. That may have provided a bit of entertainment. Maybe the book is better in French and got lost in translation? There were a couple of quotes that I fairly enjoyed..

"We mustn't forget old people with their rotten bodies, old people who are so close to death, something that young people don't want to think about..."

*and*

"So what does this mean - I'm supposed to become a doctor? Or a writer? Its sort of the same thing isn't it?"

So what did I learn from this book? Maybe that the purpose of life is the beauty in moments we find. And how we look at the world?

Happy travels little book!